Name of the Project
Parys Mountain copper/lead/zinc project.

Location
North Wales.

Project Owner/s
Anglesey Mining.

Project Description
A scoping study has reported positive results. 

The selected base case envisages a mining rate of 1 000 t/d to produce an average output of 14 000 t/y of zinc concentrate at 57% zinc, 7 200 t/y of lead concentrate at 52% lead and 4 000 t/y of copper concentrate at 25% copper over an initial mine life of eight years.

The study is based on a surface decline to access the White Rock zone. The proposed decline will be developed by mining contractors and used as the initial means of access to the resource for development and mining.

Mined ore will be trucked up the decline to the proposed surface processing plant.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The base case yields a pretax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $33.2-million and an internal rate of return of 28.3%, with a payback of four years.

Capital Expenditure
The initial capital cost for mine development is estimated at $13-million, for the concentrator at $29.5-million, the dense-medium separation plant at $3-million and infrastructure at $10-million, for a total of $53-million. A $4-million contingency provision is included.

Planned Start /End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Work on mine planning and project optimisation is continuing at the Parys Mountain project and project owner Anglesey Mining continues to believe that the mine could be company changing.

Irish mining contractor QME is undertaking an agreed programme of design, engineering and optimisation studies pertaining to the future development of the project on the island of Anglesey, with encouraging results so far.

QME studies indicate that the Parys Mountain project could be improved if the potential mineable tonnage can be increased by using a lower cutoff grade and generating a revised mine development plan, the company has said.

The QME work suggests that at a production cutoff of $48/t, about 5.25-million tonnes in situ within the designed stoping blocks would be available within the White Rock and Engine Zones for consideration in a detailed life-of-mine schedule. This 5.25-million tonnes is substantially higher than the mineable tonnage of 2.1-million tonnes used in the 2017 scoping study.

Anglesey hasnoted that QME has made no changes to the underlying resource estimates that Mincon calculated in 2012, but that by reducing the cutoff, the grade of material to be delivered to the mill would be lower overall than that used in the 2017 scoping study.

More recent studies also suggest that there is significant potential for the inclusion of inferred resources from other zones into an updated scoping study or feasibility study.

“We remain very positive about the prospects for the company as a result of the latest QME studies.

“It should be emphasised that this optimisation work will have to be supported by an updated scoping study or prefeasibility study. If eventually supported, then the size and life of the Parys Mountain mine would be company changing. We do recognise that much remains to be done and that additional funds, and possibly industry partners, will be required to enable the project to reach its true potential, but the possibilities are there,” chairperson John Kearney has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Micon and Fairport Engineering (scoping study) and QME (optimisation study).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Anglesey Mining, tel + 44 1407 831275 or email mail@angleseymining.co.uk.